Animagus
by Hermione Elizabeth Granger
Summary: The story of how the Marauders became Animagi, starting in their second year.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's wonderful characters. They all came from her brilliant imagination, and I am not trying to steal or make money off of them.

* * *

James and Sirius worriedly peeked over their shoulders as their friend, Remus Lupin, arrived late to their first class for the third time that week. Remus was hardly ever late to class, except there always seemed to be certain weeks where he was late very frequently. And the strangest thing was the fact that McGonagall never interrogated him as she would with anyone else. She merely sent a glance toward him – maybe it was sympathy – and continued with the lesson.

Remus took a seat between Peter and James, and took out his book, a quill, and parchment, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Sirius leaned over James when McGonagall had her back turned and whispered to Remus. "Hey, this is the third time in a row. What's going on, mate?"

Remus looked up, his eyes circled in dark rings, and long scratches ran across his face. "Remus, you look even worse today than you did yesterday," James retorted.

"Oh, I'm fine, really." Remus just waved the remark away.

"But –"

Professor McGonagall whirled around. "Mr. Potter, do you have a question?"

"No, Professor."

"Then would you mind keeping your mouth shut and listening?"

"No, Professor."

She continued with her lecture on transfiguring a quill into a wooden rod Her long, raven-black hair was always kept in a bun at the nape of her neck and today she wore emerald green robes, but usually she just wore black.

At the end of an unsuccessful class, during which Peter had managed to force his quill into spattering the entire class with black ink and Remus had accomplished transfiguring only the end of the quill into wood, Professor McGonagall assigned them a rather nasty essay that none of them were very enthused about. The bell finally rang, and Sirius, James, and Peter immediately jumped to their feet, Remus taking his time to pack up all his books and other materials.

"We're gonna go drop this stuff off in Gryffindor tower before Potions, Remus. We'll meet you there, okay?" James said as they picked up their books and started to head out. Remus didn't reply, but he hadn't needed to.

When they had reached the bottom of the staircase as they retreated from the Transfiguration classroom, Sirius turned and gave James a significant look. James nodded.

"Shoot, I forgot my best quill in the Transfiguration classroom. I'll be right back," Sirius muttered and promptly raced back up the staircase.

"You know, I think I forgot my book, it's not here, I think I thought it was Remus'. Sorry, Peter. We'll meet you in the common room," James promised, and turned to follow Sirius.

"I'll come with you!" Peter said brightly.

"Nah, it's alright, you go on. We'll catch up with you." James stalked off, but broke into a run as soon as Peter had turned the corner. He sprinted up the staircase and found Sirius concealed behind a statue of Godric Gryffindor, which was directly to the right of the classroom. James quickly hid behind it next to Sirius, and he was slightly surprised to find that they could hear every word that was being said from within the classroom.

James and Sirius had figured out that Lupin often stayed after class to talk to McGonagall, usually directly after the full moon, and they decided that it might be helpful to them to listen in. The two of them had figured out that their friend was a werewolf before their first year at Hogwarts had ended, but Remus didn't know that. He and James knew that no matter what, they would never leave Remus' side, even though he was terrified of what they would think of him. Fortunately, they weren't the kind of people that would leave him alone and miserable for what he was.

"What took you so long?" Sirius hissed.

"Peter kept me," James grunted, but they both fell quiet and strained to hear what was happening within the classroom. Peter, however, had not figured out the secret just yet.

"Mr. Lupin, it's been four days. Are you sure you're alright? Usually you aren't still recovering this long afterward," McGonagall was saying.

"Yes, yes, I'm quite alright," Remus replied wearily. "It's not really my problem that's been giving me trouble, I just had a lot to catch up since I was gone. It's not a big deal."

James rolled his eyes. Typical Remus.

Professor McGonagall seemed to be giving Remus a stern look, since she didn't respond right away. "Mr. Lupin, I wish I could delay your homework and allow you a few extra days to complete it, but as it is, it's not possible. Other students would begin to notice, and it would draw more attention to you."

"I appreciate it, but I understand. I shouldn't need special conditions since – since there are already so many in place." There was a moment of silence. "Professor, I need another excuse for being gone at the end of every month. I think my friends are getting more suspicious."

"We'll come up with another one as the next time comes closer. You'd best get to Potions before you miss it." McGonagall's voice took on its edge once again. Remus thanked the teacher as James and Sirius squeezed further behind the statue, trying to melt in with the shadows. Remus emerged from the classroom moments later, yawning, then headed down to the dungeons. Sirius and James stalled for a moment so they would not be discovered, giving him enough time to get down there and allowing for them to pretend that they had doubled back after retrieving their mysteriously missing items.

* * *

That afternoon, Peter begged Remus to help him with the Transfiguration essay they had been assigned, and Remus had agreed reluctantly. Sirius and James were left in the common room with the other Gryffindors, most of whom were playing games of wizard's chess or Gobstones. As Remus' robes swished through the portrait hole, James pulled out several moon charts. "I stole them from the library. I didn't think Madam Pince would let us have them, since we accidentally set fire to the ones we borrowed last year. I'll return them later, though."

Sirius was looking over the charts, brow furrowed. "So the next full moon is four weeks from yesterday. We could use that passageway next to the portrait of Mongo Bonham. There's a window there just above the Entrance Hall's doors, so we can watch them go from there. Well, hopefully. If they change directions, we may not be able to see them depending on which way they go."

"I don't think they do. When I saw Madam Pomfrey and him leave four days ago, they headed straight toward the forest. I just don't know where they ended up. I do know that she was taking him to a hiding place where he could transform."

Sirius looked up from the charts. "When should we---"

"---tell him that we know? Well, not yet. But I have an idea of how to help him…."

* * *

It wasn't long before the full moon rolled around again, and James and Sirius were nowhere to be found after classes had ended. Come to think of it, neither was Remus; Peter spent half the afternoon wandering aimlessly around the castle, searching for them. He gave up before long, realizing that they had been running off together an awful lot lately, without him. He was sick of walking in on them when they were deep in a whispered conversation, and they would stop abruptly. They couldn't hide those significant looks from him, he knew very well what they were talking about. If they wanted to talk about him behind his back, it wasn't his problem. At the same time, he wanted to know what they were saying, and desperately hoped that one day they would not notice his entrance. He contented himself by losing spectacularly in a game of chess against a fifth-year.

James and Sirius had run up to their dormitory immediately after the bell signaling the end of classes had rung. They knew that they had to hurry if they wanted to follow Remus because neither of them knew exactly when he was going to leave the school. Sirius had decided that it would actually be better to leave the castle in order to get a better idea of where they were going. This would have been impossible if it hadn't been for James, who was contributing his Invisibility Cloak to the plan.

Sirius sat on his four-poster bed, clutching his wand as James rummaged through his chest, trying to find the cloak. Both boys were bundled up in sweaters and scarves - it was snowing lightly outside even though it was still only the beginning of December. Snows such as this one, so early in the season, forecasted heavy and deep storms once winter had truly begun.

"James, we have a problem."

Without looking up James replied, "Yeah. There's snow on the ground, but I stumbled over a spell to wipe footprints the other day. I haven't tried it yet, but it seemed fairly easy. It was in our Charms book, so it's not exactly out of a second years' reach." Finally, he withdrew from his chest, clutching the silvery Invisibility Cloak. "Ready to go?"

James threw the cloak over both of them, then left the room after checking that no body parks were showing. They passed Peter, who was playing chess in the common room, shouting encouragement at his bishop, who had gotten into a bit of a wrestling match with the opponent's queen. They clambered out the portrait hole and quietly made their way downstairs, only rushing past Filch, who was grumpily scrubbing dirt off the floors. Sirius nudged James toward the hospital wing where, to their luck, Remus was sitting tensely on the edge of a bed. No one else was in the infirmary.

The two boys squished themselves in a corner, out of the way but where they could still see everything that was going on. Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office right then, though apparently she didn't realize that Remus had been sitting in her wing, waiting nervously.

"Mr. Lupin, we still have several hours before it's time for us to leave. Why do you insist on being here now?"

Remus stared at his hands and James felt a sudden rush of compassion toward his friend. Though he had researched werewolves and read about the painful transformations, he couldn't imagine what it could really be like. "It's too hard to deal with everyone and everything on a night like tonight. I'd rather just wait here." Madam Pomfrey was obviously caught of-guard by this remark, and she simply stared at Remus with sympathy before turning on her heel and heading back into her office. Remus seemed to decide that staring at his palms wouldn't accomplish anything for him, so he pulled out a book and opened it, seemingly looking up the properties of certain potions ingredients that he would probably need for the next assignment.

Sirius and James refused to move from their position, or even try to sit down. It would have been easy enough to find a place to sit down if there was someone else here, making noises that would have covered up the swishing of the cloak and their own muttering. Remus would surely notice at any little sound they made, jumpy as he was. Madam Pomfrey had said that they still had a couple of hours, but neither of the boys would have had any way of knowing when the time would come. It was very tedious, and very boring, to stand stock still for so long without anything to do. Remus got up and began to pace the length of the hospital wing.

Finally, just as Sirius began to fidget from restlessness, Madam Pomfrey emerged from her office wearing a long winter cloak and scarf. Remus had left his cloak lying on the bedstead and he wrapped it around himself slowly.

"Let's go, Mr. Lupin. We don't want to make it out there too late." With that, Madam Pomfrey swooped out of the hospital wing with Remus lagging behind her, almost as if he thought that if he didn't go to his hiding place he wouldn't have any need to transform. James and Sirius' muscles ached when they moved for the first time in hours, and Sirius moaned piteously as they cramped up. Together, two visible and two invisible, they made their way to

The four of them strode through the corridors of the castle, James mentally taking notes about where they were going and how to get there. He needn't have, though, because before long they passed the Charms classroom that Professor Flitwick usually resided over, and at the end of that hall they made a sharp right and halted. The nurse drew her wand out from the folds of her robes and tapped the wooden door in front of her three times. For a moment, James thought she was mad – Sirius, Peter, and James had tried that door many times with no success, finally deciding that it was just another one of the entrances that was really a wall pretending to be a door.

"This was Dumbledore's second plan for if the weather was bad. We haven't had to use it in the past, because last year we were lucky with a fairly dry winter, at least during the times we had to get out here. Well, in you get." Apparently, the wand-tapping had worked. The door swung open and Madam Pomfrey held it open for Remus to quickly step through. Unfortunately, she followed him so quickly that James and Sirius had no way to get through it in time, and the door shut with an unpleasant snap.

"Well, should we follow them?" James asked mischievously.

"No," replied Sirius. "If we open the door again, they're going to realize that someone's followed them."

James cursed. "And we still don't know where they go."  
"Wrong again, mate. She said they only use this when the weather's bad. Usually by January the weather clears up a bit, I'm sure we can have another go at it by then. Besides, she showed us how to get through the blasted door, we can have a go at it whenever we like."

"Right, then it wasn't a complete waste of time." James sounded annoyed. "Well, we should get back to Gryffindor tower. I think our curfew has passed – not that it matters, though, since we have the cloak."

"Fine, but I'm starving. Can't we just make a quick stop at the kitchens?" Sirius asked grumpily.


	2. Chapter 2

Half an hour later they returned to the common room. Peter was drowsing by the fire, but he woke very suddenly when James and Sirius sauntered in. James had hidden the invisibility cloak inside his robes outside the portrait hole. The room was nearly empty; Lily Evans was sitting near the fire as well, immersed in a book. However, she did raise an eyebrow at James angrily when he walked in. James grinned broadly at her.

"Good evening, Miss Evans."

"Oh, shut up," she snapped.

James pretended to look hurt. "You always yell at me for being so rude and arrogant, yet when I try to be polite and friendly you yell at me even more. That's like homonym or something."

Lily shut her book angrily. "No, Potter, it's called an oxymoron, but none of them are more of a moron than you, in my opinion." She stormed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

James chuckled. "And to think that she tells me that _I'm_ rude." He collapsed in the vacant chair Lily had left behind.

"Where were you two? I spent the entire afternoon looking for you," Peter asked sorrowfully.

"We were just investigating a new secret passage," Sirius replied. It was the truth, just…not the whole truth.

"Oh. Why didn't you take me?"

"We looked for you, but we couldn't find you, either."

"Oh." Suddenly he sat bolt upright in his chair. "Remus isn't here either, but I think I figured something out." Sirius and James exchanged a somber look. "You guys will never believe this," Peter said dramatically, "but I think Remus is a werewolf."

"We know," James and Sirius said together. Peter's jaw dropped as Sirius continued, "We've known since the end of last year."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"We didn't know how you'd react, that was all. We had to do some more investigating, first."

"Well? What are we going to do?" Sirius suddenly had a blast of respect and admiration for little Peter. It must have taken everything he had to figure this out, especially since he had no help from Sirius and James whatsoever.

"We don't know, but I think I might have an idea," James replied.

"You said that once before, too, but you never told me the idea."

James thought for a minute before slowly speaking again. "We could become Animagus."

"What?" Peter looked stunned.

"Well…we can't do anything to help him, we've already learned that. There aren't any cures or potions or charms that can make it less painful for him or stop his transformations completely. But I was just thinking…wouldn't it be just as well if we could go with him?"

"Because," Sirius said slowly, "animals aren't affected by werewolves." A grin broke across his face. "You know, I think you may actually have an idea this time, James."

"As if I usually don't?"

"Well, no." He thought for a moment. "Brilliant."

Peter was watching the conversations switch between the two of them. "But isn't it really dangerous magic? And we're only second years, so how are we going to manage it?"

"We'll find a way," replied Sirius confidently.

* * *

"Hey, Lily."

The next evening found Lily Evans curled up in one of the scarlet armchairs like a cat beside the fire in the Gryffindor common room. She was reading from an immensely thick volume titled Against All Odds: Blocking and Reflecting Unfriendly Curses. James guessed that it was filled with every hex and jinx known to wizard-kind with a counter-curse, blockade, or mirror-effect listed for each one. And knowing Lily, she'd probably picked the book because each jinx was given a full ten-page analysis and description. Vaguely, James wondered if Lily would ever use those hexes on him if he made her angry enough.

Reluctantly, Lily tore her green eyes away from the page she had been reading and glared at him instead. "What do you want, Potter?"

"I need a book."

"What do I look like, a library?"

"No, no, I mean, I was wondering if you could do me a favour."

"So now you think you need a maid now, don't you? Your head is too big for you to take care of by yourself, if that right?" Lily smirked. "Go down to the library and get your own books." She turned back to her hefty volume.

"Lily, please. I...I want to get a book out of the Restricted Section, and I was hoping that perhaps you would pretend it was for a project and get a teacher's signature for me."

"Oh, very clever, Potter. Then, when you perform dangerous magic, I'll be the one to get in trouble. I don't think so."

"No, no, I promise, it isn't dangerous. I just need it to look up some stuff."

"Since when have your promises held any real value? Besides, why can't you get a teacher's permission yourself? Why do you need me?"

James sighed and ran his hand through his hair self-consciously, which made Lily roll her eyes. "For being such a brilliant girl, you really haven't got a clue, do you? I'm always in so much trouble, none of the teachers will ever let me get a book out of the Restricted Section because they – like you – think that I'll wreak havoc on the school. If you do it, they'll sign anything for you because you're so good, and so clever, and so pretty—" James looked shocked at himself and Lily raised her eyebrows with amusement. "Well at any rate, they're more likely to let you do it than me," he finished hastily, doing his best to cover his mistake.

"I know you, Potter. You say one thing and do the opposite. You're saying that you won't cause trouble, but you will."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" James exploded, finally losing his patience. "I won't cause trouble, nobody will be hurt, killed, or otherwise vandalized in any way, and all I want to do is some research!" He stormed out through the portrait of the Fat Lady, leaving Lily to watch his retreating back in astonishment.

* * *

"Too bad we've got detention tonight with Slughorn. I was hoping to finish up that essay for Transfiguration since I couldn't finish it last night. Oh well, that prank we pulled on Snivellus was worthwhile anyway." James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were strolling down the crowded corridor towards Charms. James and Sirius chuckled at the memory, Peter giggled feebly, and Remus offered a wry, tired grin.

"Hey—" James stopped laughing once he saw that his bag, strangely enough, had ripped and all his books, ink, parchment, and quills came tumbling out. "You keep going, I'll catch up in a moment." James repaired his bag while the others headed off to class. He bent to begin packing up his things as the crowd thinned until no one was left. Just as the bell rang he had grabbed his last ink well, then straightened up.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his arm gently, and James turned around to find himself staring into emerald green eyes. Lily tore her gaze away from his, looking at the floor, then thrust a piece of parchment at him. "Here. I got this signed by Professor Slughorn. I didn't know which book you wanted, so I left that part blank, but Slughorn signed it right away without even looking at it." She pivoted and began to walk away.

"Wait...Lily!" She stopped without turning to look at him. "Why did you do this for me?"

Still facing the opposite direction, she replied, "I decided that if you really needed the book for research, I'd get the signature without putting my own name on it."

"Thanks."

"But just because I did that for you doesn't mean that we're suddenly friends!" Lily whirled around to glare at him in dislike before dashing into the classroom behind her. As James walked past the closed door he could hear her saying, "I'm so sorry, Professor Sinistra, I ran into Peeves on my way up the staircase!"

James used the same excuse as he sauntered into Professor Kettleburn's classroom several moments later.

* * *

Peter darted down the stairs from the boy's dormitory, tripping over the last few steps. He stumbled to the bottom, then straightened up and looked around the room, his eyes flitting from chair to chair. He seemed to find the one he wanted, and walked over to it before turning to face the boy within. "Sirius," he whispered urgently, "James wants you. He's up in the dormitory." He paused. "He just got back from his detention."

The boy shook his dark hair out of his eyes and glared at Peter. "Can't anyone just leave me alone? I've had enough of people asking me favours," he grumbled. "Fine, I'll go." Sirius snapped the book shut and left it lying on the chair. "Don't you dare take that spot!" he barked warningly at a first year who had immediately moved forward to take the vacated seat. She backed off, blushing deeply.

Sirius stomped up the staircase and burst into the dormitory where James was waiting patiently. James raised an eyebrow in askance of his mate's behaviour, and when Sirius didn't respond he asked, "Bad day?"

"Yeah," he grunted and flung himself facedown on his bed. "Five detentions, seventy-five points deducted from Gryffindor, two failed essays and a test all in one day." Sirius stared moodily at the scarlet hangings around his bed. "I know I'm not the 'good little boy' all the teachers want, but I think that's a little harsh."

"I agree, mate. But I think I've got something to cheer you up."

"Yeah?"

"You too, Peter." James pulled his Invisibility Cloak out from his trunk.

"Why would that make Sirius feel better?" Peter asked nervously.

"Because it means that we're going to explore or sneak around the castle," Sirius piped up, sitting upright and gray eyes gleaming with mischief. All thoughts of his bad day seemed to have vanished in an instant. "Where are we going?"

James thought for a moment. "An empty classroom, perhaps, or somewhere we can talk without disturbance. Come on."

* * *

The three boys wandered the darkened halls quietly, searching in vain for a room that wasn't already occupied or had a possibility of getting them all caught. The only sounds that broke the silence of the corridors were the crackling of the flames from the torches within their brackets, as well as Peter's grunting when he occasionally tripped over the hem of the cloak. James and Sirius had found several places to work safely - safely in their opinion, that is - but Peter had become overly nervous at each location and refused to stay, insisting on finding a different one.

By this time, James had lost track of which floor they were on. They rushed down another corridor, one that they hadn't already visited. James scanned it, thinking wildly_, I need a room to work in...I need a room to work in... _They reached the end of the hall, where they found a different passageway they had already explored and wheeled around to head the other direction. _Need a work room...work room...need a work room ..._ Thoroughly lost, they turned into a corridor that branched off the other, found nothing, then wandered back out again.

_Work room...work room...work room..._

Suddenly, an oak door appeared right in front of the invisible boys. Sirius pointed at it, and James seized the copper doorknob.

Inside there were tables, at least twenty of them, that were lined with amber-cushioned wooden chairs. The walls were suffocated with books floor to ceiling, and beside each table there were bins holding items such as quills, ink, parchment, and other supplies they might need.

"We need a work room," James said, throwing the cloak off them. "You can't argue with this."


	3. Chapter 3

The all settled around one of the tables, huddled close together. James wasn't entirely sure how soundproof the room was, and he did _not_ want to take any risks with catching the attention of a teacher or, even worse, Filch and his infernal cat. He motioned to the others the need to be careful before pulling two slips of parchment from his robes and displayed them for the others to see.

Sirius glanced at the first one, which was actually quite long. "What _is_ this?" The writing was miniscule, and all of it seemed to consist of rules and regulations. "What —?"

"We'll look at all of that later. For now, though, I'm more interested in the chart in the middle." Sirius hoisted the parchment up so the three of them could look at it. James leaned in and tilted his head to see it better as Peter wriggled closer. "This is a list of all the people who have become Animagi, at least, legally. And _this_," James held up the second sheet of parchment, "Is a signed note for the Restricted Section of the library."

"The Restricted Sections?" asked Sirius sharply as Peter's watery eyes widened. "But which —"

"I don't know yet. That's why the 'title' portion has been left blank," James replied, thinking Lily privately. "It is also the reason I got a copy of this list."

"You mean…" pondered Peter slowly.

"Well, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of books of books in the Restricted Section. We don't have any idea about what even one of them contains, and there's bound to be at least one that would be useful. And obviously it couldn't be part of the regular library, because then the school would be a zoo. Or, at least, more of a zoo than it already is," James added hastily, grinning. "So…these people had to have some way of learning to become Animagi, and since I'm pretty sure that there's not really a class that teaches witches and wizard to turn into animals, it might be helpful to see what they _did_ do, and what process they went through."

Peter interrupted. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

James and Sirius stared back, James hazel eyes and Sirius' gray ones boring into Peter's like drills.

"Why?" snarled Sirius. "Or maybe a better question would be, why not?"

"Well," Peter replied reasonably, "we'd be breaking a lot of rules…unless we're doing it legally?"

James snorted. "Since when have we cared about rules? And of course we're doing it illegally, do you really think Dumbledore, or the Ministry of Magic, would allow for three teenage Animagi to run around Hogwarts? It's going to be an adventure. Plus, won't it be worth it to surprised Remus when we figure it all out?"

A grin lit up Peter's face, and he nodded, enraptured by a fantasy that he was no doubt turning over in his mind.

"Right. So, what do we need to do?" Sirius brought them back to Earth.

"I was thinking we could write to each of these people, asking them for advice, just to see what they did. It'll be anonymous, of course, but perhaps we can make up different names, for people that don't really exist."

"There are only seven people."

"Actually, there are only five. We can't right to Professor McGonagall, for obvious reasons, and this bloke just snuffed it a couple of months ago – he was the one from South America, who could transform into an iguana."

Peter sniggered unceremoniously. "So all we have to do is write to these people and make them tell us how it's done?"

"Well, that's the plan at this point. That is —"´he broke off, looking angrily into his companions' eyes, "— if you are both up to it?"

Sirius beamed. "Brilliant, mate."

Peter merely nodded, looking slightly concerned about the prospect of the challenge ahead of him, but his eyes were bright.

"Excellent. I brought a bunch of parchment…"

* * *

The five letters were sent the next morning before breakfast, but the three of them didn't expect replies for quite awhile. That didn't stop them from gazing hopefully at the ceiling of the Great Hall as the owls swooped down over all the tables every morning, though.

"Nope," said Sirius quietly after a week of waiting, watching the last bird flapping to the Slytherin table.

"Waiting for something?" Remus smiled wryly as he spread marmalade on a piece of toast.

"Yeah, my mum is supposed to send me some new parchment soon, no doubt accompanied by a Howler. '_Why didn't you buy some before term started, we were just in Diagon Alley! I'm sick of making unnecessary trips for you, your brother never pesters me with money-spending schemes,_'" he imitated with a grimace. "As if we're poor and parchment value has just increased tenfold." Remus laughed as Sirius glowered at his family. "What? It's not my fault at Martha Briggerton accidentally hexed all my parchment to shreds in Charms last week." Which was true.

Nonetheless, James, Sirius, and Peter eagerly waited for the responses, though they were careful not to give Remus any reason to think they were up to something. James and Sirius spent time in the library, to Lily's immense shock, pretending to look up information for Potions essays or taking notes for Transfiguration, but really researching all they could on Animagi. It was not at all like them to actually do research before jumping into something new, since ethey were usually quite reckless with their behaviour, but Professor McGonagall had impressed upon them the dangers of self-Transfiguration when done incorrectly when she had made a slideshow of gruesome pictures for the class. After that rather nasty experience, they decided that it was better to do it the proper way – which would surely make Professor McGonagall pleased on one point, if she knew what they were doing.

It had been almost ten days since they had sent the letters to their recipients. Already being quite late, Remus and Peter had gone to bed and James and Sirius were left in the best seats near the flickering fire of the common room. It was empty except for a few fifth years in the corner, whose quills were scratching frantically over the parchment where they were undoubtedly scrambling to finish an essay. James and Sirius, however, were in the midst of preparing a horde of Dungbombs and Filibuster Fireworks they were planning to lob at Peeves as revenge after he had wrecked one of their plans to wreak havoc. They didn't think he'd meant to, because he'd never missed the opportunity to be the cause of chaos, but his lack of subtlety had caused their plot to be unraveled before they could carry it out, and he had landed the both of them in detention.

"Oi!" yelled Sirius, looking up from his bundle of fireworks, to which he had been attaching Dungbombs to the ends. A ruffled-looking snowy owl was perched outside the window, shifting from side to side uneasily in the howling wind. Hames opened the window and allowed the owl to clamber onto his unprotected arm, wincing as the talons stuck in his skin. As soon as he had closed the window, the bird fluttered off his wrist and dropped three letters onto the table before settling itself on the top of a scarlet armchair to groom its feather fervently. Sirius picked up the first of the three letters as James strode back across the room quickly, eagerly ripping open the second one.

"Well," said Sirius slowly, "this one is an explanation of the process this wizard went through, which is helpful but it doesn't give much detail and he didn't include a book. Handy outline that we could use, though."

James looked disappointed. "This witch wrote us a lecture about the dangers of transformation, the illegality of it all, and on top of that she was angry that we'd bothered to contact her at all. '_How do I know you're not a Death Eater, using these methods to kill even more people? I don't trust the fact that I would be giving out information that could lead to more destruction, at least not in these troubled times; I'm not a fool, you know._'" James looked aghast. "If I was a Death Eater, I think I'd be infuriated by her response and then I'd want to kill even _more_ people. If she's not a fool, she might want to learn that nothing good can come out an argument with a Death Eater." He threw the letter into the fire.

The third one was a bit more helpful. It gave them a list of books, an outline of the process much like the first one, and a couple suggestions that, the wizard assured them, might make the entire ordeal easier or more successful.

James and Sirius set aside the Dungbombs and Filibuster Fireworks for another night, setting their minds to the task they had set for themselves. Carefully, the handwrote copies of the two letters, word for word, then marked them only with the initials of the original writers. They scrutinized the real copies for anything that might have been written in invisible ink or was hidden before throwing those into the fire to join the other. In the case that the letters were found, they did not want those who had so kindly given them help to be punished for their generosity in, as the second letter had stated, "these troubled times."

* * *

A fourth letter arrived two days Later during the morning breakfast, which Sirius hastily shoved in his robes with an exclamation of "Parchment!", but he needn't have because Remus was distracted by Peter, who had accidentally set a plate full of toast on fire. He tried in vain to put it out, but the flames hopelessly grew higher and higher until Remus snatched a pitcher of pumpkin juice and poured its contents over the now-blackened toast. That night Sirius carefully copied the new addition while Remus was in the library with James, looking for an ever-elusive answer for their potions homework. With so many students in the common room, he could not simply throw the letter into the fire, where others would still be able to read it until it was burned to ash. Instead, this one met a fate of being ripped to shreds by Sirius' wand, inspired by Martha Briggerton in Charms.

Peter, Sirius, and James had nearly given up on the fifth letter. Of course, Peter had been filled in on the first four – three, really, since one had been useless – and they spent time trying to track down the books that had been suggested to them. Sirius had obtained a catalogue from his younger brother, Regulus, who had been handed the free booklet when Sirius had gone to buy his books from Flourish and Blotts. They located two books already, and James bought them from the bookstore by mail-order. One book was in the library, but they decided not to check it out until they needed it. The last book – they were sure of it – was in the Restricted Section.

It was the last week before they would be let out for the Christmas holidays, and the morning had dawned cold and grey, the ceiling of the Great Hall displaying swollen clouds fit to burst, no doubt with the first heavy snow of the season. Remus, Sirius, and Peter were seated at the Gryffindor table while James was taking his own sweet time in the dormitories above them after waking half an hour late (despite Peter frequent prods). Lily Evans was halfway down the table, talking animatedly with one of her friends, her cascading dark red hair swishing as she laughed. She was not paying heed to the whistling noises Sirius was producing a few seats away, trying to catch her attention for his own amusement.

"Hey, Evans!" he finally hollered. "What about that Charms homework?"

She still didn't turn around. He whistled loudly.

"What do you want, Black?"

"How about the Charms homework?"

"It's not for you to copy, if that's what you're asking." She whirled back around and continued her conversation.

"What if I didn't – _what?"_ he snarled at a tap on his shoulder.

"Snape," said Lupin quietly.

"What do I care about _Snivellus_?" Sirius moodily stabbed at his scrambled egg.

"Look at him."

Snape was glaring daggers at Sirius, his cold black eyes full of hatred and fury.

"Not my fault that he's sitting with that scum and I'm over here with people that don't have dung for brains," Sirius mumbled, though he glowered back defiantly.

James finally emerged from the crowd of students exiting the Great Hall before the start of class. As he reached the table, he suddenly leapt forward; Sirius, Peter, and Remus had been so intent on the staring war with Snape that they had not noticed a small owl perched on the table, hooting angrily. It bore a package wrapped in brown paper and what seemed to be a thick envelope. James removed the burden from the tiny owl and offered it some of Sirius' pumpkin juice.

"Nice of you to pay attention," James hissed in Peter's ear as retribution for his and Sirius' lack of attention. "Who died, anyway?"

"_Snivellus_," Peter squeaked, still gaping at Snape.

"That's excellent! I don't know why you three look so angry, shall we start planning a party for tonight?" He slipped the package and letter into his robes nonchalantly.

* * *

"Look at this, this is absolutely stunning." They were back in their workroom again, examining the contents of the package.

"Are we going to have to copy _all_ of this?" Peter's eyes were wide.

"No. It doesn't matter whose handwriting this is, if it's found we're all in trouble."

The envelope, like the letter they had previously discarded, gave them a warning. However, once the warning had passed, the rest of the package and envelope were brimming with the details the others had lacked. Books, suggested tips, ideas, and exact instructions were only a few of the things this Animagus had sent.

"Blimey," breathed James, "no wonder it took them so much longer than the others. They actually put effort into this. I wasn't expecting to receive a novel in return."

"Nevermind that, think she would help with our Transfiguration homework if we asked?" Sirius inquired, not looking up from a piece of parchment explaining the first attempt at transformation.

"Only if you wanted to turn it in a month late," James retorted as Peter chuckled.

The three of them split up some of the work for the holidays since the rest of their classes had given them a break. None of them were staying at Hogwarts for break this year, even though Sirius enjoyed protesting loudly against returning to his mother's house. The three of them departed after the Hogwarts Express arrived at Platform 9 and ¾ at King's Cross Station, each bearing the promise that they would continue their work even during their holidays.

Author's Note: I'm sure you all are wondering why I restarted this one…I hadn't written for it in a long time, and suddenly these past two weeks I wanted to do nothing but write. And if you remember correctly, I started this story about two and a half years ago. Since then, my writing – hopefully – has gotten better. I was really pleased with this chapter that I'd finished, but when I looked back at the previous four I was desperately horrified because of the lack of research I had done and the plot schemes. Well, now I've combined the previous first four chapters into just two chapters because they were originally so short, and I've cut out parts and fixed or changed them. I didn't want to completely rewrite them, but hopefully they're a little bit better. I'm sorry for any confusion, but I think it will be better this way.


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